Wildlife

Manta Nursery

The world’s first known manta ray nursery has been discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, solving a mystery that had baffled scientists.

Young mantas are virtually never seen swimming in the world’s oceans, leaving researchers with few clues about their early life.

But a researcher at California’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography worked with NOAA to pinpoint the manta nursery in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, about 120 miles southeast of Houston.

Wildebeest Buffet

The world-famous wildebeest migration across East Africa is being slowed this year by a bounty of fresh grass left along the route by heavy rains that nourished the Serengeti last year, and again during much of May.

The Tanzania Daily News reports the migration is now nearly two months behind its typical pace, meaning the grazers are going to be considerably delayed in reaching Kenya’s Maasai Mara. The wildebeest crossings of the Grumeti and Mara rivers, typically during July, are popular safari attractions